Communications between computers such as email, file transfer, and the like may be referred to as data communications and/or packet network communications. Some voice communications also comprises data communication, for example voice over internet protocol (VoIP) is a packet data communication protocol. Data communication may be propagated between routers. Routers are specialized computers that are configured to promote large throughput of data communication on many ports and/or interfaces. The data communication or network peripherals of a router may comprise a plurality of circuit cards. Each circuit card may itself support a plurality of separate data ports. Each data port or port may itself support a plurality of data communication circuits. Data communication may be interrupted when one or more of the circuits, ports, or circuit cards of one or more routers goes out of service for any of a variety of reasons. Such communication interruptions may result in reduced throughput or total communication blockage for some customers of the data communication service provider.
An enterprise or data communication subscriber may have a customer owned router that is linked to a router of the data communication service provider. In some data communication subscription contracts, the enterprise or data communication subscriber may be responsible for monitoring and managing their router. In other data communication subscription contracts, the data communication service provider may offer to manage the subscriber's router that connects to the data communication network, for example for an additional management fee.